Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing La Madre de Los Gatos by Brian Beck.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
La Madre is a great little Spanish style piece.
It's about three minutes in length.
It does have split clarinet parts, alto, trumpet, and trombone, but they're only split into
two parts.
You need a minimum of five percussion on this and you might have to tweak the percussion
two part if you only have five percussionists.
Six percussionists is better.
All of the percussion parts in this are pretty important to add to the style.
It is in three, four, and in the key of concert E flat, and it's about three minutes in length.
So that's all the big major stats for La Madre.
It's also about on the Texas PML, it's a grade three.
So definitely appropriate for a middle school ensemble or a non-varsity, seven non-varsity
high school.
Yes.
This piece is so fun and the kids love it too.
At the middle school level, we kind of have to start it a little bit slower and work our
way up.
I imagine a high school could probably play it pretty close to tempo pretty quick.
The piece overall starts off at 132 and then it goes even faster in the middle.
So it does require some musical skills where the kids can tongue quicker, can count quicker,
can move their fingers a little bit quicker, especially in the woodwind instruments.
But anyway, percussion is very important.
There's big chimes, there's big castanets, maracas, timpani.
All of those parts are featured and very important.
The whole piece starts off with a little opening from first trumpet, flute, oboe, first clarinet
and saxophones together.
And I like the way that Mr. Beck colors the music with sax and clarinet a lot throughout
this piece, as well as of course trumpet since it's Spanish style.
The low brass get to come in with a little response to the opening and then we get back
to the same people doing the same little...
Low, lows, lows, lows, lows, lows, lows, lows, lows.
Then we start our little Spanish groove.
Low brass love it because it's not hard to count, but it's fun and it kind of sounds
a little like umpah-y so they like to like dance to it and stuff.
This ostinato continues a lot throughout this piece.
And I think we talk about, and when I've played this with my bands, we talk about beat three
leading to beat, beat three leading to beat one.
So giving just a little bit more emphasis on beat three, one and three, one and three,
one and three, just to help kind of give that a little bit more forward momentum.
The tuba line and the bass clarinet line are also really important and they do not mimic
the trombone and euphonium line.
So that is pretty neat, but it's just something different for this mark, or this Spanish style
song.
The altos and the flutes and oboe have the melody at eight, at nine.
And again, the altos get to be pretty important.
Lots of leading through, like Laura just said, three leads to one, teaching the students
that there's so many opportunities for phrasing on this piece.
You know, building it up for two, getting softer for two.
Like it's a very lyrical piece, even though it's not.
It's just so beautiful because it's playing lyrically on top of the ostinato underneath
with the low brass.
There are a lot of rhythms in here where you have an eighth note and two sixteenths or
two sixteenths coming in after an eighth rest.
The sixteenths are often slurred and it's really important for clarity of articulation
to make sure that those are tongued or that we don't have, you know, sometimes younger
players might do air starts instead of starting with the tongue and all of that just to match
clarity needs to be articulated.
Ta, ta.
And even before you get there, I think it's a good idea to take all the slurs out so that
you can line it up later on in the piece.
Laura and I were talking about, I remember my flutes had trouble with one spot and so
we just took all the slurs out to make sure that they can keep everything really even.
So that's another just like practice strategy.
At 13, the clarinets get to take over the melody along with tenor sax and they get to
play low down in the shalammo register, which is always really fun.
I love this part.
Yeah, it sounds really pretty.
You know, one of the tricks is making sure that like your low brass don't ever get too
loud over the melody.
You still have the ostinato going in horn and sax in this moment, but then like the
low brass have like a dotted half note getting stronger and then getting softer again.
And it's really important that they don't go above and beyond what the melody is.
And so just that balancing, you know, that's always important to think about.
But this one has a lot of different little layers to think about.
This snare part is pretty active throughout this, but it's kind of in along with what
Katie's saying about the low brass part, it's important that your snare player be able to
play with a lot of control and softer dynamics.
Absolutely.
Because it's really easy with the way that the part is written for them to overbalance
the percussion section and then the ensemble as well.
So they need to they need to be a pretty strong player that can play controlled softly.
Yep.
In response to the clarinet melody here at 13, the flutes and oboes have this cute little
oney and it's just really cute and they do it again in like four measures, but it's just
adorably written.
It's not supposed to be loud.
It's just like a little fun effect.
Then the lows do get to get a little bit stronger, kind of take over for a second.
Then it goes back to the clarinets with their little moment.
In this little section while the clarinets are doing this cool thing down low, there
are a couple of places in here where it's often slurred through here and Katie's already
referenced the fact that it is like this lyrical style over the rhythmic ostinato.
Younger players can clip the ends of those slurs, especially when we see little two note
slurs, ti-ya, ti-ya, ti-ya, and it's really important that they follow through on that
and not clip that.
Make it as lyrical sounding as possible.
Yes, absolutely.
And then we keep going with the clarinet melody with the little flute and oboe back and forth
into measure 23.
Then the whole band leads up and we have three accented quarter notes here.
One, two, three, one, then the trumpet, flute, and oboe come down into the next measure,
which is 25.
That part right there sometimes can sound really immature in younger bands or bands
that haven't spent enough time on it because the trumpets have to come in on an upper E
and the flutes are on a D and oboe too and that's just not a great tuning note on any
of those instruments.
So spending time isolating that little line, maybe find one or two players per section
that can actually play it in tune with a good sound and accuracy.
Things worse than a trumpet trying to come in on the right partial and then they don't
and it takes away.
Or trying to squeeze that note out and sounding really tense.
Because there's nothing else going on there.
So that part has to be set.
Then at 25 we land and the whole band, except for clarinet and sax, has this little dotted
half note leading up one, two, three, one, two, three, one, and one, and one.
It's so fun.
And they get to just crescendo and make those dotted quarter notes be real accented and
firm style.
And then all underneath them you've got clarinet and sax playing all eighth notes essentially
but they're not all playing all eighth notes all the time.
It sounds really cool.
It's written really well.
It sounds active and fun and the kids like this little moment and they get to do the
crescendo decrescendo too.
And then there is a pickup note into measure 31 where the whole band is going to come in
stronger.
So we've stopped at piano and then everybody comes in mezzo forte.
It's meant to be like a big moment.
We want to hear a difference here for sure.
Yep.
And then at 31 the flute and the trumpet and the clarinet and alto one have the melody.
Then we got the rhythmic ostinato again underneath.
But everybody's in here.
This is the first really big full moment.
And you can decide what works for your band at 34.
There is a moment for a breath mark in the melody if you want to take it or you can have
the kids push through and make it sound more like an eight measure phrase which is what
I personally prefer which is what I did too.
So when I played this I thought it sounded more elongated and lyrical taking my first
breath with the melody at 38 instead of 34.
So the way you even added a crescendo.
Yes.
Yep.
And the way you have to do that is playing out the breath marks for the kids so that
way they're not like well that's where it feels good to take a breath.
I mean you're right.
You're not wrong.
So you have to think about okay I'm going to have my flute players they're going to
sneak a breath and measure 35 between beats two and three and then another flute player
is going to breathe after beat one and 36.
So going through and either marking that pre marking that for the kids or saying you know
in sectionals your you for your kids are going to play your be.
You for kids are going to breathe in 35 you for going to breathe in 36 or whatever it
might be.
But planning out those breath marks will help the students so that way they're not just
relying upon their like natural instinct to take a breath every four measures.
Then we're going to just continue that melody line going into measure 42.
We're all leading up again.
I'm sorry.
This is the same melody and type of style that the clarinets had earlier.
So we're copy pasting all those stylistic things we talked about with the clarinets
not clipping the ends of the slurs making it sound as lyrical as possible.
It needs to be exactly the same here.
And then we end the same way with the one two three one then the trumpet and oboe.
They have that same little line coming down.
So again find your best ones.
The whole band is piano at 43.
We get that same moment again where the saxes and the clarinets get this cool little eighth
note thing and the band is leading up again and getting softer.
There's a lot of repetition in this piece.
So it's one of the things that is nice even though it has some challenging moments to
teach and they're really good teaching opportunities.
Once you've taught a chunk that you can you can essentially copy paste to other sections
of the piece.
So it does make for I think it makes it a little bit easier to teach because of that.
Now we have a new section pickups into 49.
Everybody is forte now and style change and a big style change.
Now we're all accented.
There are not a lot of slurs happening.
Everybody is forte the low brass get the melody for the first time and low reads.
So they're really excited for that always.
The trumpets have it first actually so trumpets go three and one two and three and lows come
in two three one two and three.
So they're kind of like in a conversation here.
Then above that flute oboe clarinet have this cute little one and trill one and trill and
I did not let all of my kids play because it's an it's a G trill above the staff for
the flutes.
It's very high and it can be too much.
You know we're not I don't want to take away from the low brass and the trumpets here.
So I think what I did is I had one kid play the upper G trill and I had everybody else
just play a G in the staff and not trill.
And I only had probably one oboe at the time so that worked out and even the first clarinet
is on a high A high A to B flat trill and I think the clarinet color I mean I agree
completely with Katie I like the idea of one or two flute players and taking the other
flute players down since it's just in the first clarinet part the clarinet part is really
what I think kind of adds that the color combination.
So having you know your first clarinets if you just have two first clarinets or three
first clarinets if you're limiting what you're doing in the flute I think that you'll get
the I think that you'll get the sound and the color you're looking for without covering
up what's happening the most important stuff that's happening in the brasses.
Yeah they just need to be the kings here and then trumpets have the melody with saxes at
51 just like a moving eighth note line low brass is chilling again then they come back
up and they get to have another moment at 53 54 same little trills we don't want to
overbalance them then everybody's accenting and getting softer leading into 57.
So this part with the eighth notes in my experience with this the second clarinets are also doubling
what's in the horn trumpet and alto tenor here and matching that articulation especially
from your reed instruments that was something we had to work on because it is a complete
style change so a real firm articulation and making sure that you know the first trumpets
sound as good as the second clarinets down in a lower lower register of their instrument
just being intentional about matching that articulation.
Yep I think that's important of course and then at 57 we get a new moment again now we
don't have the accent and style it's more lyrical again we have dropped out a lot of
the voices it's kind of like a woodwind choir here yeah but horn and euphonium play so the
color instruments so the woodwinds clarinet one alto one have the melody tenor sax and
horn have a tenor like a counter melody line and even most of the percussion has thinned
out here too so the percussion doesn't play for two measures then they come in at a louder
dynamic and then get softer then they don't play again and then they come in at a louder
dynamic and then they get softer so it's kind of like an echo effect and they're leading
and helping the wind players above them because that's what the winds are doing is they're
crescendoing up for two and then decrescendoing down for two these lyrical lines are really
well written and the dynamics are written in for you for what you would want to hear
and they're really important I mean it's important that the whole ensemble that's playing at
this point buy into that phrasing lots of accidentals in this section so just making
sure that your students are you know are comfortable with that exactly yeah or if they don't or
they're not so comfortable marketing for them yeah there's big like alto sax moment here
where they go a little bit above the staff you want to bring that color out I think Mr.
Beck wrote it that way intentionally for them to be a little featured they have a lot of
the altos have a lot of C sharps sustained C sharps in this section so I would teach
them covered C sharp and have them use covered C sharp here for tuning to make sure that
the tuning aligns with what's happening in the first clarinets yep and then we're getting
again the percussions kind of coming in and out here then percussion goes away for a while
and so the band has to have really good pulse here they have to be watching you to stay
totally together we still have the clarinet one and alto melody with horn and tenor having
a counter melody and then euphonium also helping out with that we finish out this little thought
at 72 and we kind of have a little bit of it's not a key change necessarily in this
section but it kind of sounds like it because of all the accidentals written in we have
a final like arrival point chord at 72 and it can be very out of tune E natural in trombone
G in trombone C in euphonium E natural in flute C sharp in sax so spending some time
on that arrival point chord I think is really important and then we're kind of doing the
same little lyrical again where for two measures we're leading up but now the whole band has
joined back in like tuba berry sax all the lower voices are back in and then we have
the same thing where percussions kind of out for two measures other than bells bells are
playing along with the flute and then we get into measure 79 we have another arrival point
chord on C sharp and alto and C sharp and trumpet so just the like the tuning in this
section is pretty it can be pretty scary if you don't spend some time on each chord there
are some when the melody part kind of arrives and it is at a cadence point on a longer valued
note there are several instruments middle and lower voices that have a one and and three
one and even though this is super lyrical those happen on the same note for each of
those instruments and it's important that they articulate really clearly so that it
doesn't sound money we made it like staccato accent staccato accent ta ta ta ta yes yeah
so I think that that is a great point so that way you can actually hear that articulation
81 we're continuing with the melody in the upper people and then we crescendo up as a
full group to 85 with that same one and and three and then the everybody that has accented
quarters here I taught them to play each one one dynamic level louder to lead into 87 one
two three one then we're back at the beginning one and one one and a two and three two three
so it's the same as the beginning again same concept styles and then a whole new shift
everybody on beat one plays forte and everybody in the whole band plays piano on beat two
and then there's an achela rondo and a crescendo we spent a lot of time you you have 91 to
95 because it's four measures where the whole band is getting faster and getting louder
and you have to practice getting louder at the same rate getting faster at the same rate
so and it's the same note it's not they're not changing notes it's the same note over
and over so you just have to teach the kids how to do it how to listen how to match their
neighbors side to side don't get louder than your friend don't go faster than the conductor
and you go into one here too so you have to conduct in three then eventually you're in
your ride you're right now when we taught this like we isolated those two concepts because
it's the same note we isolated the achela rondo and we isolated the dynamics so and to
teach it that way so like if you just like don't don't change the tempo and let them
work on playing every note and just getting slightly louder together at the same rate
while articulating the same the the same way as well what younger kids are going to want
to do the louder they play the longer they're going to play right so keeping the style the
same as they get louder then we isolated the achela rondo let's just do that we took it
away from the instrument and had them clap so that they were really focusing on just
watching and and and doing that achela rondo together then putting it on the instrument
I would say you know if it if it was any other piece you could do that on a concert F but
it's the same note all the way through so I mean you don't need to do that once they
are really secure with the clapping then you can mix those two things together put it together
add the dynamics add the achela rondo but these four measures I have heard these four
measures can seriously make or break some ensembles absolutely so it is so important
don't put it off it's so important to work these four measures and make it a really solid
transition otherwise when you land at 95 it can it can be a disaster and take four five
six eight measures before the ensemble settles in yep so at 95 it's written prestissimo
con fuego so it's in one at a hundred so one two three one two three one two three one
two three it's and it's actually faster than that it goes really fast and my flute it's
flutes only they struggled so much with clipping the third note like Laura's already mentioned
a lot and also making the first note too short because it's written tongue tongue slur slur
ta ta ta ta ta and it goes from a C to a D C C D E C E flat C C D E flat C C D E flat
and so I know the like just the pinky and every it just like it's kind of a thing you
got to work on like right away like make sure that your flutes feel really comfortable with
this part it is fun they love it it's just something that they have to be really even
ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta they have to be really really even clarinet and
oboe come in along with bass clarinet as like a little response after four measures with
tambourine as well it's a cute little color choice then they keep going with their melody
with the clarinets and the altos coming in underneath them then at 109 all the woodwinds
come in 1313131 they're gonna clip that quarter note oh my gosh it drives me nuts 13131 it
has got and it's all a phrase so they come in strong just like the percussion did before
where they came in at mezzo piano and they got to piano they come in at mezzo forte and
then get down to piano so teaching them that that is a that is a whole phrase and I taught
that they were not going to breathe between 112 and 113 because now we have the same thing
the opposite direction now they're going from piano to forte so it's a four measure decrescendo
followed by a four measure crescendo and I taught that all as one thought which in one
that's not right for them to do right so it what we did to help keep them from clipping
that quarter note at the end of this section is I had them play a just a dotted half note
so they played their first note as a dotted half note and didn't change da da da da da
and we talked about using dotted half note air even though our fingers are going to be
changing once we were sure that they could play the dotted half notes all the way through
and it felt you know connected and flowy we went back and added the extra quarter note
in there and kept the air the same the goal is that it sounds the same so that's a that's
a little a trick that you can use to practice this section at 117 we have a final arrival
point and and also I forgot to mention on those four measures where we're going from
piano to forte the brass come back in there yes so the whole band sounds more full and
strong and at 117 the whole all the upper woodwinds have the one two and three one two
and three that the flutes had before and xylo adds in and that's a really cool color choice
it is so work with your your percussionist to try to find the best mallet choice to make
it sound like really really nice it should be a little bit of a harder mallet in my opinion
yes I think it makes it sound more more awesome above the band and then we want to make sure
all the woodwind players like I told them listen to the xylophone player yeah that's
how your fingers need to be as as accurate as the xylophone yep then the brass have the
little one two three one that the clarinets and saxes had before we're continuing this
thought for quite a while then we go back into the little lyrical thing at 131 where
we start strong get softer for four then get louder for four but now it's the full band
instead of just the woodwinds and making sure that everybody again gets the same dynamic
level down and the same back up you don't have like one trombone trying to go for it
and get louder than everybody else and the trombone speaking of is up above the staff
here so tuning is also pretty important lots of accidentals in this moment just like we
had before and then at 139 we have a cute little chromatic e thing we are forte and
then all the little upper woodwinds are doing a chromatic scale down then at four measures
later the brass get to have a little chromatic e thing going back up as they get louder the
woodwinds are slurring down the brass are articulating up so just making sure that matches
and then the next four measures the woodwinds again play this time it's not chromatic but
they play staccato so it's like slurred to regular firm tongued to staccato and then
the whole band has one and two one and one or sorry I was thinking one and because of
being in one but you guys get it yeah it's a hemiola the whole band minus upper woodwinds
accented strong you're gonna lead up to 155 then it's a big percussion moment chimes get
the melody timpani has a whole really cool part I told my kid like go crazy town like
it is so neat timpani and chimes I think are most important right here and then the full
ensemble is playing one at just a quarter note on beat one and that the tendency is
to be way too short on that oh yeah making sure that it's a full body and resonant one
rest one rest and one then they have to come in like right before and then they come in
strong and the woodwinds lead us out with a chromatic line up to the last note and then
the last note needs to also be long and full value the pick up note that eighth note pick
up now I did it is it is fast and it has to be articulate ta ta ta ta all right that is
something that we had to work on to make sure that it we aligned it correctly and that it
was clear in the articulation and then last note just like we talked about the notes at
one fifty five and one fifty seven make sure that that's full body resonant don't clip
that note too short this piece is so much fun kids love it absolutely love it it's it's
not too hard as an individual part like they're not going to look at it and be like I can't
play this but it comes together well as long as all the kids know their individual parts
and can watch really well because there's just there's a lot of activity there yes and
the tempo is fine I think that's one of the things that they look at it and might see
a lot of white notes on the page but the tempo really is what you know I think it makes the
technique a little bit more challenging and a little bit more fun well we hope you will
program la madre de los gatos sometime in the future and thank you for joining us on
this episode of band BFFs.